Due to another early parliamentary election this year, the Metropolitan Municipal council does not meet. But there is a nagging problem that needs to be solved immediately! This is the bonus system promised by Mayor Terziev and recorded in an agreement between him and the trade union organizations for those working in the capital's public transport. This is what Vanya Grigorova, the municipal councilor of the capital, states in her position.
See what else she wrote:
Backstory
By order of the Mayor of the Metropolitan Municipality, a working group was formed with the participation of representatives of the trade unions, which by the beginning of August finalized the methodology according to which the additional remunerations will be charged. It provides for the payment of an additional remuneration per kilometer traveled to the drivers of vehicles, with the lines being divided into different categories, according to the load, intensity, passing through roads with narrow sections and areas with waiting vehicles, etc. – three categories in motor transport and two categories in electric transport.
From the end of August, a letter was sent by the unions to the mayor Terziev with a request for a meeting to decide only and only how many cents per kilometer will be paid in the different categories of city transport lines. Until the transport workers' protest took place last week, the mayor had not scheduled such a meeting.
Financial resources are required for the introduction of additional rewards. That is why, at the last meeting of the SOS (again extraordinary) and at the previous committee meetings, I made a proposal to update the budget of the Capital Municipality and allocate BGN 3.3 million to the two companies – “Metropolitan motor transport“ EAD and “Metropolitan Electric Transport” EAD. In the hall, my proposal was not accepted, as it did not reach 1 vote – out of the required 31, received support from 30 municipal councilors.
A week later, Mr. Terziev explained that right now the bonus system cannot be implemented – could only from November and not with the rates requested by the unions, but with lower ones. Because there was no budget update. But they – “We continue the change”, “Democratic Bulgaria” and “Save Sofia”, voted “against” namely last week's budget update. This is called political hypocrisy!
The sequel
The group of GERB-SDS initiated a collection of signatures with a request for an extraordinary session this week. I seconded this request as I had planned and stated that I would be submitting a budget update and appropriations report for the Transport Workers' Bonus Scheme. The report is signed by me, Mr. Ivan Takov – chairman of the Committee on Transport and Road Safety and municipal councilor from MK “BSP for Bulgaria” and Mrs. Ekaterina Yordanova – trade unionist and representative of GERB-SDS.
It turned out that the only point proposed by GERB-SDS could not be supplemented with another one, since the session is extraordinary. I immediately held a series of conversations with municipal councilors from GERB-SDS to promptly make a new request with the first point being the report on the money for the transport workers and second their request to hear Mayor Terziev on current issues. That didn't happen. A single point emergency session is now scheduled – hearing Terziev on a bunch of issues, but without proposing draft solutions.
We listen to the mayor instead of solving a pressing problem
I don't need to listen to Terziev. I am part of SOS to put the interests of working people first, which is clearly not a priority for a significant number of municipal councillors. I am therefore withdrawing my support for the request for an extraordinary session and will not be attending the meeting on Thursday 17 October. I understand the parties that are looking for a way to attract the attention of the voters. But it is high time that the formations in question understand that politics must offer solutions to problems. The other is politicking.